Big main monitors - whats vogue these days?

[dumbleator]

We're looking to purchase mains for our new facility. The musical styles of clients will be pretty much everything except Rap and Hip-hop. The control room will be about 540 sq. ft.. The mains will be soffit mounted.

What seems to be most popular these days?

Thanks in advance,

Mark

[NathanEldred]

ATC, ADAM, PMC, Quested, B&W, Westlake.

[Wiggy Neve Slut]

Nathan is on the $$ with those suggestions. Me im a PMC advocate but im not sure if they do soffits.. for client and A&R WOW factors nothing pleases like a big **** off set of Westlakes with wooden horns powered by a rack of Crowns!!!...lol talk about old school .. especially is they are a in a Tom Hiddley designed room!

PEACE
Wiggy

[Lindell]

I´m using a pair of "Stage Accompany" M57. 2x12" x Ribbon Driver.
Check
******//www.stageaccompany.com/produc...er/master.html
I found these to be the best for my taste. I´ve compared ém to Genelecs etc, and just blow the competitors away!

[NathanEldred]

Originally posted by Lindell
I´ve compared ém to Genelecs, and just blow the competitors away!

[OKden]

I really like the ATCs. They can hype the client, or you can back them down and actually use them to get work done.

[littlelabs]

Most of the serious contenders as it is almost a standard for years now, use George Augsperger Mains with Tad components. No fluffing about that's what Mains be all about.... they can take the punishment necessary when tracking guitars in the control room and such, and if you have someone like "coco" Steve Brandon tuning them with a little input for your own taste, they can be amazing. It's funny how common they are in the bigger rooms, but I don't believe good old George has ever advertised. A man made of word of mouth should be admired.

[dumbleator]

Originally posted by littlelabs
Most of the serious contenders as it is almost a standard for years now, use George Augsperger Mains with Tad components. No fluffing about that's what Mains be all about.... they can take the punishment necessary when tracking guitars in the control room and such, and if you have someone like "coco" Steve Brandon tuning them with a little input for your own taste, they can be amazing. It's funny how common they are in the bigger rooms, but I don't believe good old George has ever advertised. A man made of word of mouth should be admired.

Interesting you should say that. George Augspurger happens to be the acoustician designing our new facility. Even though I am his client, he has never once pushed us to use his monitors. George is an utter professional and a true pleasure to work with. We may wind up using a custom monitor designed by George. Not sure yet. At this point we want to keep our options open.

Thanks for all the responses.

[faeflora]

Originally posted by dumbleator
The musical styles of clients will be pretty much everything except Rap and Hip-hop.

Hmmm. Nashville?

[dumbleator]

Originally posted by faeflora
Hmmm. Nashville?

Close. Chicago!

[Bob Olhsson]

George's mains, at least all the ones I've seen, are custom built-in systems.

[Steve Smith]

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Originally posted by dumbleator
The musical styles of clients will be pretty much everything except Rap and Hip-hop.
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Originally posted by faeflora
Hmmm. Nashville?

No , musical..

couldnt help myself..

[Fletcher]

Originally posted by dumbleator
Interesting you should say that. George Augspurger happens to be the acoustician designing our new facility.

D'oh!!!

Augspurger has a reputation for allowing the client to hang themself. I have worked in several rooms he has done... and frankly it's very obvious when the client has made "requests" and when they haven't.

When left alone he does some of the finest work I've ever encountered... when given "special requests" he incorporates them... usually to the absolute detriment of the project.

If I may be so bold... I would suggest you specify "Augspurger" monitors for the room and a color scheme... then go on vacation until the room is done.

[MIKEHARRIS]

Augsbergers are merely the update to the Westlake original concept...utilizing twin TAD 15"s and 2" instead of the JBL's...and is a proven way to kick the client in the cahones... have him "feel" it as he tracks. Recent improvements in digital crossover implementation have improved the system as well as changing those awful Crowns for Brystons and BGW's.....further improvements are found in alternative diaghprams for the TAD4001

[littlelabs]

Anyone using a digital crossover in the studio should be stoned to deaf! Georges rooms I have been involved with used a Bryston 10 B xover or temporarily the one built into the White EQ.

[Steve Smith]

Hey, speaking of big mains.. anyone still using UERI 813s? I know KRK made a "same sizes" replacement..anyone heard those? I allways loved the 813s on big R&R stuff.

[Bernd G]

Originally posted by MIKEHARRIS
Augsbergers are merely the update to the Westlake original concept...utilizing twin TAD 15"s and 2" instead of the JBL's...and is a proven way to kick the client in the cahones... have him "feel" it as he tracks. Recent improvements in digital crossover implementation have improved the system as well as changing those awful Crowns for Brystons and BGW's.....further improvements are found in alternative diaghprams for the TAD4001

I don't know about the absolute validity of this: The custom monitors at Allaire South that I have seen (put in last year) were made by G.L Augsburger (SIC!) and each have 4 JBLs in them with the wooden TAD horns. Powered by Crown Studio Reference 1 and 2s and Brystons for the Top end.
...and yes - we have many requests to sell our 813s - everyone wants them because they are loud and imposing. To my ears they sound very dated, and basslight if not soffit-mounted. Also, they were designed to be run with the appropriate UREI amplifiers that control the speakers.

[Han]

Originally posted by Lindell
I´m using a pair of "Stage Accompany" M57. 2x12" x Ribbon Driver.
Check
******//www.stageaccompany.com/produc...er/master.html
I found these to be the best for my taste. I´ve compared ém to Genelecs etc, and just blow the competitors away!

Stage Accompany's are manufactured in the town where I was born (Hoorn the Netherlands) and indeed the monitors are hi end.

Not very well known tho. The founder is a former carpenter who started building PA speaker cabinets in his small house many moons ago.

The compact driver is their own design and a superb piece of craftmanship.

Great sounding monitors!

[ExistanceMusic]

Originally posted by Bernd G
.......Also, they were designed to be run with the appropriate UREI amplifiers that control the speakers.....

I'm intrigued, what exactly does this mean? The only thing I can think of is that the speakers have a weird damping spec, or a really odd impedance and the amps are designed with this in mind....

Not sure, more info please??

[Bernd G]

Hello Existance,
I'm including a paraphrase from Newell's book on Studio Monitoring:

... In order to create an accurate impulse or transient response, the phase response of the system must be as coherent as possible. Only this, together with a smooth "frequency response" can re-create an accurate impulse. Passive cross-overs are very complex because of the interaction between the reactive elements of the loudspeaker drivers and the high level, passive crossover components.
In the classic 813 UREI opted for a passive, high level crossover of the "long" design. They circumvented many of the impulse/phase caveats but were still left with the other problem of such crossovers -- components in the circuit between the amplifier and bass drivers. If the series inductors in the crossover filters feeding the bassdriver have any resistance (which they must have), then the damping capability of the amplifier is reduced. One ohm in series with a 8 Ohm driver will limit any possible damping factor to around 8:1, whether the amplifier has a damping factor of 10, 100, or 1000. The bass cannot be punchy unless the power amplifier has total control over the moter system of the loudspeaker. The prime requirement to achieve this at low frequencies is a damping factor higher than 40 and a minimum cable/crossover resistance between the amplifier and the bass driver.
UREI used a sensing circuit which worked with their amplifiers; but everybody was reluctant to purchase the expensive UREI amplifier ...

Cheers

[freemidnight]

Hey it remembers me when we builted passive Xovers with 10 gauge wire for the lows and 12 gauge for the mids and highs, with 600volts oil caps(militart stuff)for the lows and 200volts for "the rest"

[ExistanceMusic]

Ahh, the light bulb of understanding blinks on. Thanks Bernd!

[Jules]

In this day and age of 'producer clubhouse' style small private studios can I suggest that you CAN have 'Mains' in one of these space restricted facilities with ADAM S4A-C (collumns) monitors? As they are tall rather than deep, they operate very well as free standing 'mains' in small rooms!



Carry on...

[robdarling]

I just came off a stint working at a place called Music Palace, a Hidley designed room with Kinoshita monitoring, and am absolutely broken. It is the most amazing thing to walk out of the room and realize that over the previous 12 hours, you didn't even ONCE question what something really sounded like. It doesn't even cross your mind. Incredible. I don't want to work anywhere else.

[MIKEHARRIS]

IS THE KINOSHITA PACKAGE THE ONE WITH THE TAD HORN..WITH 15'S ABOVE AND BELOW?? ANY SUBS??

[robdarling]

yep, tad horn, 15's above and below, all shoved into a wall made of concrete, with a thousand watts of FM Acoustics amps on each side. no subs. Kinda ridiculous. Absolutely fantastic. Never had to go to my little guys at all, just to headphones to hear a more real world stereo image. Hands down the best room in the New York area.

[Bernd G]

Originally posted by robdarling
I just came off a stint working at a place called Music Palace, a Hidley designed room with Kinoshita monitoring, and am absolutely broken. It is the most amazing thing to walk out of the room and realize that over the previous 12 hours, you didn't even ONCE question what something really sounded like. It doesn't even cross your mind. Incredible. I don't want to work anywhere else.

Interesting. I would like to hear more about Tom Hidley's work.
I imagine that similar to the Augsburger designed rooms, the Hidley rooms are designed to work with the Kinoshitas. They are "non-environment environment" rooms. From what I dimly remember is that in these rooms the monitors are considered part of the reflective front wall and the room is designed to eliminate all other reflections including those from the backwalls (unlike LEDE), save floor reflections. If you were to change one aspect of the equation (speakers, amps, room) you would be back at square one. As far as large (big, powerful, far field) monitors are concerned, you must consider the monitors within the space. Considering large monitors in different rooms IMHO is similar to using the same drivers but different crossovers & enclosures. Also, the Kinoshitas cost a small fortune....
Cheers